Women’s Health – 2008

House star Olivia Wilde has the perfect prescription for a stress-free life: a good book, a prince of a guy, and the occasional 33-pancake breakfast

They call this ‘the death corner,’ because there are so many accidents,” says Olivia Wilde, poised to cross a busy boulevard in Venice, California, on her retro-blue beach cruiser. Cars whiz by. She looks left, then right, then suddenly shouts over her shoulder: “OK! Here we go!” Great. An actress with a God complex. Then again, she does play a doctor on TV, and in a pinch, she probably could perform CPR. Or stanch a gushing head wound.

Well, maybe not. “Hmm. I don’t know if I could save you. But I am fascinated with neurology, so I know a lot about the brain,” says Wilde, better known as Thirteen, the bisexual M.D. with a terminal brain disorder on Fox’s hit series House. (“Not only am I dying, but I’m gay. Now, that’s a juicy role,” she says.) Her job leads her to self-diagnose every bump and itch she gets: “Yesterday I was dehydrated and my fingers were twitching, so I thought, ‘I have ALS and I probably have three years to live.’ I freaked out.”

Thankfully, Wilde recovered. So much so that she suggested this leisurely if slightly treacherous ride to the Santa Monica farmers’ market for an al fresco lunch. For the self-described “sort-of vegetarian who eats fish,” the lure is a raw-food stand and a chance to plop down and wiggle her toes in a patch of grass. “You’re not going to believe this, but they have bike valets there,” she says. “Only in Los Angeles, right? So crazy.”

The same could be said for Wilde’s rapid ascent from casting assistant to TV star. Since arriving here in 2002, the 24-year-old Irish-American has shape-shifted from a blonde nympho in the indie fave Alpha Dog to a sultry brunette in the slasher flick Turistas. (“Brunettes have more fun,” she says, “because people don’t know what to expect from them.”) She also just finished shooting a goofy period comedy called The Year One in Shreveport, Louisiana, alongside Jack Black, Michael Cera, and David Cross. “It was freaking cold at times, and there were a lot of unpleasant conditions,” she says, “but I was surrounded by the funniest human beings I have ever met. There was zero drama.”

Her series of Sapphic smooches with Mischa Barton in the second season of The O.C. launched this Washington, DC, native into the role of male fantasy fodder. (The steamy kisses have garnered 100,000-plus YouTube hits, and she says she still gets letters from sexually confused young women who consider Wilde a role model.) “When I kiss a girl for a part, people think it’s sexy. But if two guys kiss, suddenly there’s a backlash. It’s a double standard,” she says, munching on a guacamole pesto taco. “Honestly, I think we’re all bisexual in some way.”

And who would top Wilde’s own girl-on-girl tryst list? “Angelina Jolie, hands down! Just seeing an actress who has been through it all and who doesn’t care what other people say about her–someone who has forged her own path,” she says. Wilde met her crush at last year’s Golden Globes, where Jolie was up for her role as Mariane Pearl in A Mighty Heart: “I was sitting at her knees and talking about my parents [well-known international journalists Leslie and Andrew Cockburn] and how dangerous being a journalist in a foreign country can be,” she says. “Later, I was like, ‘Brad who?’ I didn’t even realize he was leaning over her shoulder the whole time. Everyone around her just disappeared.”

One guy Wilde has found impossible to ignore is her husband, Tao Ruspoli. Several years ago, she was feeling a bit turned off by L.A. guys–“they spend way more time looking in the mirror than I ever do,” she says–when a friend of her parents suggested a set-up. She bristled. “He wanted to introduce me to this Italian guy who made films and lived on a school bus. I said, ‘Whoa! I don’t want to meet a dude who lives on a bus!'” Turns out the guy was an Italian prince whose family owns a palazzo in Rome and a castle in Vignanello, Italy. He’s a filmmaker and documentarian; the bus is a mobile studio for a cinema collective he founded.

Within six months, the two had eloped–on the bus, no less. (They later had a proper wedding in Virginia.) Ruspoli was 27; Wilde, just 18. “My dad did have a minor heart attack, and it was hard to imagine settling down at the time,” she recalls. “But there was this wave of romantic excitement and an overwhelming sense that we were supposed to be family. We were very open to the idea that if it didn’t work, we would let it go its course. No pressure.” (A quick glance at her ring finger reveals a chunky gold band, not the honking emerald-cut rock favored by Hollywood royalty.) Wilde gets a kick out of people’s first reaction to her titled spouse. “Everyone expects him to pick me up in a limo or a yacht,” she says. “Then Tao rolls up in this old Thunderbird, wearing flip-flops, his hair all crazy. People are like, ‘He’s a prince?'”

The two certainly don’t live like nobility. Their bohemian Venice Beach loft is crammed with oversize abstract art, ethnic furniture, and cookbooks scarred with food stains. “I used to play hooky from school so I could watch cooking shows,” says Wilde, who loves to throw impromptu dinner parties. She tries to be relaxed about her eating, but she avoids bread and pasta as much as possible–not always easy when you’re married to an Italian. Cheese and good wine, however, are daily staples. “I don’t own a scale, and Tao banned the word fat from our house,” she says. “If we eat too much, we say, ‘I feel clogged up.'”

Wilde–who actually has won a few eating contests in her day–knows that feeling well. “Once, in Australia, I ate 33 pancakes in 20 minutes, and I only did it because they said a girl could never enter the competition,” she says proudly. “I won against these giant men, and they were convinced I was cheating. Guys have some sort of sick fascination with girls who can eat.” Conversely, Wilde says, women seem to get off on women who don’t eat. A year ago, during a visit to Thailand with her husband, she caught a nasty case of Dengue fever and lost about 15 pounds. “I looked really thin, and all the men in my life were worried about me,” she says. “But all the women in my life were proud of me. They started calling it ‘the Dengue diet.'”

To work off the occasional pound or three of pancakes, Wilde exercises daily. She spins at a local studio (a fact she’s embarrassed to admit, since she’s just blocks from the beach). “I make fun of it, but it’s amazing, because you have to push yourself through this resistance, which is so therapeutic,” she says. “And they say you can burn nearly 800 calories in, like, 45 minutes if you push it to the highest level.” She also does yoga, dabbles in karate, and hikes regularly with her dogs: a bulldog named Lola that she lovingly refers to as “a side of ham” and a fluffy mutt that goes by Paco. In 2006 Paco won a contest to be the “spokesdog” for Old Navy. He traveled, sat for photo shoots, and got paid (his salary went to a canine charity). “He still acts like a doggie model sometimes. If I put a T-shirt on him, he won’t move. He thinks he’s back at the job; he’ll strike a pose and just sit there.”

As for herself, she’ll pass on posing for hours on end. “It would be so depressing to be a model and not get to say a word,” she says. “There’s no personality involved.” Even perfecting a paparazzi-worthy smile for the red carpet has been a challenge. “I got a tip, which sounds ridiculous but actually works,” she says. She suddenly flinches, like she’s in extreme pain, and says “Ouf!” Is it appendicitis, doc? Another bout of Dengue fever? Nope. “You have to smile like someone just punched you in the stomach. Bam! Smile! Bam! Smile!”

Pop Quiz

Best advice from Mom
“Never believe anyone who tells you that you can’t do what you want to do.”

Strangest thing in her fridge
“Kombucha. People think it looks like vomit, but I think it’s fermented mushrooms, and it’s good for you.”

One thing that people would be surprised to hear about her
“I’m shy. In fact, I was at a party last night and I was just sitting there praying that no one would come over and talk to me.”

Most embarrassing thing she listens to
“In my car, I have The Tempest on tape and it always comes on suddenly and really loud.”

Best beauty tip ever
“Wear mascara. If I have to draw attention away from some hormone-induced acne on my chin, I put on a lot of mascara.”

Best style tip
“Always wear a dress that you can pee in. I wore an incredible dress to the Emmys, but I had never tried to pull it up. I had to take it off to go to the bathroom. I nearly ripped it off my body because I had to go so bad.”

Bizarre talent
“I was on my high school step team. I still love it. I’ll do it sometimes and people are like, ‘What the hell is that?'” (More commonly known as steppin’, it’s the style of dance where people use their bodies as percussion. -ed.)

Sexiest romantic gesture
“Take your date somewhere fabulous, like the Chateau Marmont, and after dinner, pretend you want to break into a room. But really, you already rented the room and you secretly use your room key. A little manipulation …”

Four famous people she’d invite to a dinner party
“My grandfather, Claud Cockburn, because he was an amazing journalist and I never met him. Oscar Wilde–he would have great anecdotes. I would love to have Rosalind Russell in there too. Oh, and Al Green, because he’s my favorite artist and he can sing to us after we’re done talking.”

The most erotic part of a man’s body
“That muscle around the pelvis that you see when their pants or shorts slide down. It’s that little rip that only men have, and it’s so sexy.”

What guys might be shocked to learn she finds attractive
“Scruffiness. All my friends are madly in love with James Franco. The first time I met him, I was like, ‘Hot damn!’ because he was all greasy.”

Here–read this…
Coming from a family of writers, Wilde has a real love of words. Take a look at her five favorite page-turners

God Bless You, Mr. Rosewater
by Kurt Vonnegut
“The humor! There’s a quote I love about having to be kind in this wet, round world. It’s important for young people to read Vonnegut.”

The Man Who Mistook His Wife for a Hat
by Oliver Sacks
“I love nonfiction, and the stories about how the brain functions are unbelievable. Since House, I’m more interested in science; I used to be such a theater nerd.”

A Confederacy of Dunces
by John Kennedy Toole
“His writing is so quirky, and the characters are so odd and great. How could you not love the creepy hero? I just went to New Orleans, and I think he completely captured its elusive quality.”

Atlas Shrugged
by Ayn Rand
“I like her idea that intelligence and hard work are what make men and women great. The woman in the book was strong and beautiful, but she didn’t use her beauty in any significant way.”

Eat, Pray, Love
by Elizabeth Gilbert
“A great woman accepting her weaknesses? I fell in love with it. It made me want to eat great food and have great sex and great friends.”